The first Call of Duty Infinite Warfare multiplayer beta was held from Oct 14 to Oct 18th, for those that preordered the game, with a second beta from October 21 to 24th, available to all PlayStation 4 players and Xbox One pre-orders. Though I have already written about my initial impressions from Call of Duty XP this was a lot different as I was playing online with many players.
From the amount of players that were online and people already at rank 30 on the third day I would say the game is off to a good start. Because it was a beta there were glitches but Infinity Ward was outstanding to release updates constantly over the weekend, adding new maps and modes but improving gameplay. Adding the modes like Kill Confirmed and maps such as Precinct were a plus.
Ten minutes of gameplay in Kill Confirmed Precinct with the Synaptic combat rig.
Kill Confirmed offers a challenge to gather dog tags from downed enemies while the other team is after you but also relies on teamwork to gather the most tags for a victory. The best part of Call of Duty multiplayer are the team modes, not only can you rank higher and unlock more gear faster but it feels more like a war game playing as a squad then alone. Besides there are more team modes and challenges than the solo modes. In the beta there were no solo modes anyway but Call of Duty always has Deathmatch for those solo players.
Call of Duty Infinite Warfare multiplayer is focused around the combat rig. Starting out you only have three rigs to choose from, which is good because one it makes you play more to unlock the others and two those three are actually pretty sweet rigs. My go to rig is the Synaptic, though I did find the Warfighter to be useful on some maps, I tended to get more kills and assists with the Synaptic.
The thing I like most about the combat rigs is that they are based on individual gameplay style. If you want a versatile rig that is all purpose but good with mid- range weapons and slower gameplay go with the Warfighter. However, if you are looking for a faster closer range combat style the Synaptic is a good choice. As you move up the ranks and unlock more rigs the FTL becomes a better choice for speed fighting.
Each combat rig comes with choice of three payloads and three traits. At the start only one payload and trait is available. So for Synaptic it was the equalizer, two automatic weapons for close range annihilation. To get more payloads to unlock you need to rank up. By rank 10 I already had two payloads for Warfighter and Merc but not Synaptic. Equalizer is great but its not the reaper. Waiting to get the reaper, the robotic melee dog drone, was frustrating but just made me more determined to rank up. At rank 12 you get the reaper and its awesome. The score streaks are also nice like the scorchers, jets that unleash a volley of missiles on your enemies, whether it is planet side combat or combat in space.
Players get a nice choice of weapon types to choose from and a variety of unlocks for each type. These weapons include ballistic, energy, melee, and prototype weapons. As with other Call of Duty games weapons can be single shot like the sniper rifles and shotguns, semi-automatic, or automatic like the machine gun varieties. Melee is unlocked at higher ranks. Players also have a choice of secondary weapons along with primary weapons. Secondary weapons include rocket launchers and handguns. My go to weapons are the automatic ballistic rifle NV4, and the EBR-800 semi auto energy rifle. The EBR-800 is nice because you can change it to an assault rifle. I also like the full auto ballistic rifle KBAR-32. This one is smaller than the NV4 and good for close quarter fights.
Infinity Ward also provides a nice assortment of lethals and tacticals to choose from. There are several really good grenade types. Some of the grenades you can get are the exploding drone, seeker grenade, and plasma grenade. Some tacticals are the cryo mine, and radar. All rigs have perks. Some perks can make you undetectable to radar, change mags faster, or be more resistant to explosives.
One of the unique aspects of Infinite Warfare is the mission teams and challenges. Players start out with the JTL Wolverines team and earn points toward higher ranks by completing challenges, such as kill enemies with three different weapons or earn 5, 10, 20 kills or assists during a mission. It’s fairly easy to rank up in the mission team and as you play more teams become available. Another bonus for better gear is the quartermaster.
During matches players earn keys which can be used to purchase supply drops for unique rig and weapon customizations, calling cards, and weapons. You can also acquire customizations as rewards for playing matches, completing challenges, and getting a team victory. There are some cool weapon camouflages like the neon tiger paint. Rig customizations include different helmets and body armor. Completing matches also earn players salvage which can be used to unlock new prototype weapons. I have so far earned five weapons, two NV4 prototypes, sniper rifle, handgun, and submachine gun. They are a bonus and a nice addition to the Call of Duty multiplayer. Weapons fall under four categories of rarity. The weapons above the common type are acquired in the prototype lab, supply drops, and as rewards. Weapons fall under common, rare, legendary, and epic categories. Epic are the rarest weapons with common being the base weapon.
The maps are nice to play and well done, though there were a few maps that were more popular than others and got the highest amount of votes.
The most dominant map I played was Frontier. Frontier is a space station orbiting Neptune and one of the smallest maps, great for Warfighter and FTL. There is not many places to hide. Though cover is offered it’s more a running maze of corridors were enemies lurk. You can also get trapped in corridors by enemy combatants. When it comes to staying close to your team Frontier is the best example of this. It’s also a low gravity map, Infinite Warfare is a future space Call of Duty, which seems to slow your speed and makes for interesting gameplay. My favorite map is and has been since Modern Warfare 3, Terminal. Terminal is a spaceport on the moon. As in Modern Warfare 3 there are shops, the terminal, a space shuttle that you can go into a hideout for enemies. Like Frontier Terminal is high paced and smaller map with more open fighting.
Another one of my favorites s Precinct. A city map that is not too big or small and lots of places to take cover or wait out the enemy. It’s good to have those maps with some hideouts or areas were teams can gather and just buzz kill the other teams. Also this map is good for snipers. Frost was also another map I ended up in a lot. This is a larger map on the moon Europa. It’s an ice covered mining settlement and very industrial. This is where both Synaptic and Warfighter had good advantages along with Precinct and Throwback. All three of these maps have closed areas for close quarter kills. Throwback is a space station with a 1950’s theme.
I did like that throughout the beta they added more modes, like Kill confirmed. The main staples of Capture and Team Deathmatch were included and a new mode Gun Game. Capture is where your team needs to secure and defend areas A – C. Team Deathmatch is all out war and the team with the highest kill score wins. My favorite is Kill Confirmed where kills are only counted if you collect dog tags, the team with the most dog tags wins. For these it’s based on total team score. Even if a player doesn’t collect tags, kills do count toward your score and toward score streaks. As I said before I prefer the team matches to solo matches because you do have a higher chance of getting more points with not only kills but assists.
Call of Duty Infinite Warfare multiplayer expands on the multiplayers from Advanced Warfare and Black Ops III. Players have some of the same gameplay from Black Ops III like slide and wall run. It also has the same fast paced gameplay, which can be overwhelming for first time players to the Call of Duty franchise. Infinite Warfare can be challenging at first but the secret is to find the right combat rig, if you pick the wrong one or the wrong loadout it can be frustrating and you’re going to get slaughtered. Teamwork is vital in the team modes, sticking with your squad and taking down enemies, assisting other players, and securing areas in the mode capture with more than one player is key to victory. Those teams that get victory know how to play the team modes.
Players have choices between default loadouts and custom loadouts. When choosing a loadout you get all these default choices first and then your custom loadouts. The main menu under combat rig allows you to create your own unique loadout with your preferred weapons, score streaks, perks, and traits. Infinite Warfare is a game that was really designed for player preference. The default loadouts are available but for more experienced players I recommend using your custom loadouts.
The matchmaking system was slow at first but with later updates it got better, and toward the end of the first beta matchmaking had a decent wait time. This allowed for players to make changes and customize loadouts with new abilities and weapons before the next match.
As far as a Call of Duty multiplayer, it’s a mix of previous games with newer features that take on the elements of future warfare. For example playing a combat robot and having maps in space and other planets. Playing this game I felt that Infinity Ward did a decent job focusing on how players play and created a nice multiplayer for the Call of Duty player. Besides the combat rigs are awesome and there are some very interesting maps. It’s a fun, addictive game that will give you hours of intense action and gameplay.
Players may also appreciate the game more once you learn about all the features and how to choose your combat rig and loadouts. There are also some nice customizations, abilities, and traits that come with the game. I am recommending playing Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare multiplayer.
.Call of Duty Infinite Warfare releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on November 4th
You know this review is fixed now way this trash game gets a 4.5 out of 5. Nice one
This is why I can’t trust score aggregation websites anymore.